The Qube made it's competition debut last weekend at The BBQ Bailout. It was only the third time I cooked on it and all three times I cooked chicken. When I started to design and build this thing, chicken didn't even enter my mind; this was a charcoal oven. As the build continued it was obvious that it would be great for cooking chicken. So far so good but I still have a learning curve to figure out. One big thing for me is taking into consideration the weather. With my other smoker weather means nothing. It cooks the same if it's 10 degrees or 110 degrees outside. I designed it for the long New England winters. But not The Qube. It's only one layer of stainless steel and no insulation, so the wind/rain/cold will have a major effect on this cooker. The two times I cooked on it before the competition it was 35-40 degrees out with no snow. I formulated a time line according to those conditions. Well on the day of The Bailout it was snowing and the temps were in the low 20's, not ideal. I adjusted my time line slightly, but not nearly enough. As chicken turn in approached everything was going fine until I started to probe the chicken for doneness...my heart sank and my mind started to race. The chicken was cooking, and it was in the safe zone for chicken, but I knew I wanted more time. I was not going to have time to do a final step that we do on chicken. So I didn't touch the chicken and left it to cook another 10 minutes forgoing the last step. I handed the chicken off to Kris at 2:01, she did her magic, and was off to the turn in table at 2:03...the latest Lakeside has ever turned in. Now fast forward to the awards.
"Third place chicken...Lakeside Smokers." Ken announced.
"You kidding me?" I ask Kris, as I take a walk up.
I should be happy right? 3rd place is good. Well, I am happy, but the first thing I think of is skipping that last step. Now what do we do? The judges liked the chicken as it was but would they have liked it better with the final step? Maybe less? I don't know, and now I don't know what to do. But I do know one thing: there will be some chicken dinners in our future.
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7 comments:
So many questions...
What is the last step to chicken a la cube?
What kind of charcoal did you use:wood burnt down to coals, lump, briquettes?
It looked like there were a handful of ways to set up the cube. What did you do? Coals top? Just an opinion, but when I cook in a pit, I to have the food 20 to 24 inches directly over the coals. I'd be interested to see if you noticed a change in flavor with the coals on the bottom and the chicken on the top rack.
How long can you cook before you need to add more fuel?
Inquiring minds want to know.
FWIW...
I judged the contest, and I have to be honest and say I had some pretty BAD chicken at my table. Two of entries scored the lowest I've ever scored chicken. Three others were just ok and one was really good. That said, I have no way of knowing if your chicken was a my table or not. If you are generally happy with the way your chicken has been scoring previous to this contest, I'd keep doing it the way you did it before and keep that final step. Just my opinion!
I have a feeling my chicken was at Jared's table....
Sorry about that, Ted. But if you were going to try something new, that was the perfect venue to do so.
Those who can, cook... those who can't, judge and make comments on blogs...
Wow. You really hit the nail on the head, "anonymous." You really have me pegged. It's like you've known me all my life. Is that you, mom???
Jared Huizenga
Insane Swine BBQ
bogsbbq@yahoo.com
I think THE BAILOUT had fantastic judges ! LOL
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